UN rights expert urges US to end 'torture' of prisoner | Al Jazeera America

9.10.13

UN rights expert urges US to end 'torture' of prisoner | Al Jazeera America: Special rapporteur Juan E. Mendez called on the U.S. to end the indefinite solitary confinement imposed on Albert Woodfox, who has been in solitary for over 40 years after being convicted of murdering a Louisiana prison guard.

Woodfox and two others were moved to isolation units at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, where they came to be known as the "Angola 3."

"Keeping Albert Woodfox in solitary confinement for more than four decades clearly amounts to torture, and it should be lifted immediately," Mendez said.

"The circumstances of the incarceration of the so-called Angola 3 clearly show that the use of solitary confinement in the U.S. penitentiary system goes far beyond what is acceptable under international human rights law," he added.